That is, the complete failure of Brown and his Analytics Andys to make anything but epic-failure decisions at the quarterback position.

Browns principal owner Jimmy Haslam fired Brown on Thursday. ESPN reported that Brown’s analytics-minded acolytes soon will join him as ex-Browns employees. Presumably that means some or all of chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, VP of player personnel Andrew Berry, VP of football operations Phil Dangerfield and VP of player personnel Kev Kovash.

And what of the head coach, whose record over the past two seasons so far is 1-27 (.036)?

“Hue Jackson will remain our coach and will return for the 2018 season,” Haslam said in a statement, “but we feel it is necessary to take significant steps to strengthen our personnel department. We have begun the process of having productive conversations regarding leadership of our football operations and will provide further updates when appropriate.”

To be fair, Brown’s and DePodesta’s newfangled brand of ‘Moneyball’ style NFL front-office planning and decision-making wasn’t all bad.

The trade in March to take Brock Osweiler and the last three years of his four-year, $72-million contract off the hands of the Houston Texans was a brilliant stroke of creativity. The Browns made the Texans ‘pay’ for the financial and roster inconvenience by coughing up a second-round 2018 draft pick — the real prize of the deal — for virtually nothing in return. The Browns had oodles of cap space to make such a novel transaction.

Acquiring a warehouse full of draft picks quickly became the speciality of Brown and his lieutenants, starting in 2016. But in so doing, they wound up punting the realistic expectation of victory in any week far beyond the grasp of last year’s deeply gutted roster — to such an unforgiveable extent that, despite making some wise draft selections and free-agent signings early this year, players still can’t see the top of the dark, dank cavern out of which they’re desperately trying to climb.

Brown and his crew didn’t have to excavate so deep. Especially with regard to their quarterbacks. Indeed, if you deliberately tried to pack so many bad QB decisions into a two-year window, you wouldn’t and couldn’t fail this epically.

The roll call …

— Last year the Browns signed Robert Griffin III, presumably as a last-chance resurrection project of sorts. RG3 proved more frail and failing than even the cynics predicted.

— Last year the Browns traded down from No. 2 overall in the draft to let the Philadelphia Eagles select Carson Wentz, who’s skyrocketing as a budding, bona fide superstar this season. Incredibly, ESPN reported Brown’s scouting brain trust did not rate Wentz as a top 20 prospect. Listen, I attended the Senior Bowl and scouting combine before last year’s draft, and had a few minutes alone to talk to the impressive Wentz. The buzz surrounding Wentz’s character and focus off the field, as well as his undeniable talents on the field, was omnipresent at these events. I called Wentz the best QB prospect I’d seen in five years of covering the Senior Bowl. How the Browns could arrive at such a wrong, dismissive conclusion remains stunning.

— This year the Browns let 38-year-old QB Josh McCown walk away in free agency, after another season of nagging injuries held him back in Cleveland in 2016. When he did play, however, McCown often shone, and overall played well above the mediocrity line. Which means he proved far more functional than the usual 21st-century Browns quarterback, of which there have been nearly 30. McCown wound up signing with the New York Jets, and this season has been so consistently good as to become a strong candidate for NFL comeback-player-of-the-year.

— This year the Browns entered Round 1 of the draft owning selection Nos. 1 and 12. No one blamed them for taking once-a-decade edge-rushing talent Myles Garrett first overall, but many were shocked that the Browns passed on either bundling some of their numerous stockpiled draft picks to trade up from 12 into the top 10, so as to pick whoever they thought was the second best QB after Chicago nabbed Mitchell Trubisky second overall, or, to take whichever remaining QB they deemed best at No. 12. Brown’s Browns not only did neither, they traded down from No. 12 in the first round with Houston, meaning — after Kansas City selected QB Patrick Mahomes at No. 10 — they let the Texans select Clemson University phenom Deshaun Watson at No. 12. Watson became the Texans’ starter in Week 2, and by mid October had exploded into a prolific, record-breaking superstar in his own right before injury ended his season.

— In Round 2 at No. 52 overall, with their fourth pick of the draft, the Browns finally selected a quarterback: talented but raw DeShone Kizer from the University of Notre Dame. Few thought he’d be ready to play this year. The Browns, though, appointed him starter two weeks before the end of training camp.

— In the spring, at the end of training camp, and again on trade-deadline day at the end of October, Brown’s Browns failed to strike a deal with the New England Patriots to acquire via trade Tom Brady’s principal backup, Jimmy Garoppolo. San Fran did. Another big swing and miss.

— And in their most recent unforgiveable gaffe, Brown and his staff waited until only a few minutes before the trade deadline on Oct. 31 to agree to a deal with the Cincinnati Bengals to acquire their widely admired backup QB, A.J. McCarron. The trade would have gone through but, according to reports led by the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot, the Browns failed to notify the league in time; the Bengals did as required at their end.

And so, as Wentz, Watson (before he blew out an ACL) and McCown have wowed the NFL world to varying degrees this season, the Browns have tried to win games with a trio of green quarterbacks — after dumping Osweiler at the end of training camp — who entered the season with just two accrued pro seasons, eight NFL starts and zero NFL wins between them. Namely, rookie Kizer and lowly regarded second-years Cody Kessler and Kevin Hogan.

You can’t expect to win a single game with such a trio, but the Browns have tried. And they’re 0-12, after switching from Kizer, to Hogan, and back to Kizer, with Hogan and Kessler oscillating as backups.

Since early August each of Kizer, Hogan, Kessler and the departed Osweiler has been the No. 1 QB at one or more points. None of this schizophrenia has mattered because, this season, not one of them has proved good enough to play, let alone start.

Brown, the ninth GM to come and go since the franchise’s expansion rebirth in 1999, said the following in a statement released by the club a few hours after his firing:

“I want this to be real and clear, the way I know Cleveland and Browns fans can appreciate: Our win-loss record since I became executive vice-president isn’t going to cut it.

“We worked hard. I am so grateful to the people I worked with … We embarked on a mission to rebuild the Browns for long-term, sustainable success. We were committed and aggressive in our approach, even if unorthodox at times. We made dramatic changes and put in place a foundation on which championships can be built.

“Obviously, the Browns have not yet achieved the turnaround we wanted … I know that turnaround is coming … And when (it) happens, wherever I am, I will smile — more than a little bittersweetly — and say, to myself, ‘Go Browns!’ ”

SURGERY FOR SHAZIER In an ominous statement, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced Thursday that linebacker Ryan Shazier underwent surgery Wednesday night on the spine he injured in Monday night’s game at Cincinnati, while making a tackle with his head down.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center neurosurgeons “performed spinal stabilization surgery,” the Steelers said without elaboration. Shazier remains in hospital. He appeared to have no movement below the waist as he lay on the field, before carefully being carted off.

NFL Network reported that Shazier faces months of recovery. Renowned former NFL team doctor David Chao wrote that this specific surgery means “Shazier’s spine was unstable and involved bone, ligament and/or disc disruption” and that the surgery “was almost certainly to prevent future damage to the spinal cord.

“It was likely a fusion surgery with rods, screws and/or metal cage with bone graft to fuse the unstable spine segment. Although football is not at the forefront of anyone’s thoughts now, this surgery itself does not rule Shazier out from football in the future. But without a doubt he is done for the season. Fusion takes 4-6 months for recovery.

“The key is still the spinal cord and nerves. Are they working or not? Is there feeling and movement? Has there been early progress?”

EXTRA POINTS Buffalo CB Tre’Davious White is out of concussion protocol, and on Wednesday said New England TE Rob Gronkowski’s one-game suspension without pay for his egregious hit on him is “a joke,” and that “he could have broken my neck” … NBC again will use its “SkyCam” — which shows action from above and directly behind — for Sunday night’s Baltimore at Pittsburgh game.

This Week's Flyers

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